Natural Six a Year On: Building Party Dynamics Off the Back of Dangerous Decisions

A year on from launching their D&D actual play web series, the cast of Natural Six reflect on their unfolding campaign, diving into the failures and successes that have helped shape their unique story. 

Natural Six’s campaign takes place in the world of Reliquiae, constructed by Game Master Harry McEntire (Xenoblade Chronicles 3). Delving into its dangers and secrets are five adventurers, made up of some of gaming’s most familiar faces: Ben Starr (Final Fantasy XVI), Doug Cockle (The Witcher), Hollie Bennett ( Square Enix, former-PlayStation Access), Aoife Wilson (Larian Studios, former-Eurogamer), and Alex Jordan (Dragon Age: The Veilguard, Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty). We sat down with the cast at London’s EGX x MCM last month to ask how they took risks during their sessions, and whether they surprised themselves with their character’s actions.

Ben Starr: “I said to Harry the other day, I went, ‘you know I'm not stocking mage armour right now.’ And he went, ‘why?’ And I went, ‘because I kind of think that's what Radian would do.’ I was playing him with this recklessness. He doesn't have a high armour class, but he likes walking up to people and just trying to do stuff. I think it's interesting for the story. 

No, that's not how you play — That's not how I should play a wizard. A wizard should be standing back, firing spells But there's something fun about getting up in people's business.”

Starr plays Raidion Thornbear, a Wood Elf Wizard and famously one of the hardest classes to play in Dungeons & Dragons. A challenge that Starr himself told us last year he was excited to take on.

Harry McEntire: “I've played with people, I've played with lots of first time players and lots of them make poor decisions because they don't know how the game works. Ben is the only person I've ever played with who makes poor decisions because he thinks it's more interesting knowing it's the wrong decision. 

And actually, we need the mechanics and we need the rules and we enjoy that, and there's a joy to be found in [the cast] discovering cool things [their] characters can do. Particularly when we tried to incorporate stuff in the new Player's Handbook, we found narrative hooks for all of that. So, for example, weapon masteries; Holly's character now has them because she was taught by someone who knew how to do it in character at the table.

But I hope we're a really character and story driven party. They make decisions, and the things I feel proud of at the end is when I see them make decisions that are, if we were running it through a computer, are the wrong decisions to make. They're the right decisions for the character and true to the character, because also out of those failures and successes comes the most interesting party dynamics in the best story.”

Perhaps it’s due to the wonderfully chaotic nature of the cast, but Natural Six’s web series shows D&D from a different perspective. It’s a campaign that isn’t afraid to take risks for the sake of the plot, promising to be entertaining while showing new and veteran players alike outcomes they’re unlikely to have experienced before. 

Harry McEntire: “Something I took from [another campaign] which is, if you massively fail an insight check it's not just that you don't get a read on someone, you believe something fundamentally incorrect to be true. So you then have to try and follow that through to its logical conclusion. 

So, Raidion essentially was in a situation where he thought an incredibly high level politician was sexually attracted to him for having rolled a Nat 1 on an insight. He really pursued that for, I think, an hour and a half.”

Ben Starr: And everyone else was trying to convince me otherwise. I was like, ‘honestly guys, you cannot see it. I can see this thing!’

A source of constant amusement often arises from Kelnys, a Dragonborn Druid and one played by Geralt of Rivia himself, Doug Cockle. Though a far cry from the White Wolf, Cockle isn’t afraid to play Kelnys a little out of pocket.

Alex Jordan: “Kelnys would be super, super sensible then suddenly turn around and just do something where it makes everyone go, ‘I'm sorry, hold on. What?!’”

Aoife Wilson: “We all have our moments, for sure. Are we scared to put ourselves in danger? I think that's the great thing about our characters. We do quite often put them in danger.”

Ben Starr: “It was interesting really early on because, Doug, you rolled your character really high.”

Harry McEntire: “He's an absolute monster. It's the closest I've ever come to asking someone to reroll. Because it's so above standard. It's insane.”

Ben Starr: [talking to Cockle] “But also it's so brilliant, because the things that come out of it are not a character who's overpowered in battle but a character who, because you play him very differently, you see everything because your stats are so high. So you pretty much see everything.

We'll be trying to have conversations. We're trying to roll stealth. You see it. Then Kelnys can choose whether to interact with it or not. In doing so, it's creating these fascinating story opportunities where you have this sometimes very stoic, sometimes very chaotic, always very hungry character. Having this presence and this aura because of how high your passive perception is. Us as a group, trying to have these conversations, but Kelnys is always there, listening. It brings a wisdom to the character which is just inherently the way that you roll them, which is really cool. But you've gone down!”

Doug Cockle: “I've gone down a lot, actually. Just because I rolled high doesn't mean that I'm not vulnerable. Which is interesting as well. I think it's cool that the biggest dude in the party is the one who often goes down.”

You can catch all episodes of Natural Six’s first campaign, and their debrief and one-shot episodes over on YouTube, or by watching on Twitch. Be sure to also check out our interviews with the cast over on the GINX YouTube channel for our show The Games That Made Me.